Monday, November 14, 2011

Top Three

1.)  Five and Counting- The hottest team in the CHL is the Evansville IceMen who are boasting a 6-0-1 record and a league-best .929 win percentage.  The IceMen have yet to lose a game in regulation and are coming off a three-game sweep of the Dayton Gems this past weekend.  Brian Bicek had three goals and two assists during the three games earning him Oakley CHL Player of the Week honors.  His teammate, Todd Robinson, earned the weekly nod last week.  The IceMen have a tough three-in-three this week hosting the Fort Wayne Komets (4-4-0) on Thursday and then playing the Turner Conference leading Missouri Mavericks in a home-and-home series on Friday and Saturday.  Goaltender Pier Pelletier continues to lead the league with a  1.58 goals against average and Evansville as a team is the best defensive club allowing just 1.71 goals per game.
         
2.)  DFW Uprising – The CHL clubs in the Dallas/Fort Worth area have been making some noise recently with both the Allen Americans (5-2-2) and the Texas Brahmas (5-4-0) riding four-game win streaks into the week.  The Americans have a tough four games this week taking place over five days with games in Rio Grande Valley (5-4-0) on Tuesday/Wednesday and the Rapid City Rush (6-3-1) coming to visit the Allen Event Center on Friday/Saturday.  Allen has picked up the defensive play allowing just one goal in each of their last three games.  Texas has outscored their opponents 17-10 during their win streak and has a very balanced attack with eight different goal scorers over their last four games.  Brahmas goalie Steve Silverthorn has been outstanding lately going 3-1 with a 1.97 goals against average in his last four decisions.  Texas travels to Arizona for three games against the Sundogs this week (Thursday/Friday/Saturday).    

3.)  Goals, Goals and More Goals - Rapid City forward Jesse Schultz and RGV’s David Marshall both boast the longest active goal scoring streaks in the CHL with strikes in four straight games.  Schultz has one goal in each of his last four games and Marshall, now on re-call with the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage, has five goals during his stretch.  Marshall’s teammate, Aaron Lee, has the longest goal scoring streak in the league this season (five games).  Schultz is also on a seven game point streak (11 points).     

Inside the Numbers
3: The number of hat tricks scored on Saturday night, tripling the total scored in the first three weeks of the season.  Texas’ Phil Fox, Tulsa’s Gary Steffes and Missouri’s Dale Mahovsky all netted three goals for their clubs on Nov. 12 with Fox and Steffes helping their teams to victory but Mahovsky’s effort was lost in a 5-4 loss to Wichita.  Mahovsky is tied with RGV’s Aaron Lee for the most goals scored in the CHL this season (7).     

On the Fly
-Evansville’s Brian Bicek scored back-to-back shorthanded goals on Friday night in Dayton just 17 seconds apart.  Bicek leads the league with three SHG’s on the season (no other player has more than one).  Last season, Bicek was tied for second with five SHG’s.
-Both Bloomington’s Aaron Dawson and Laredo’s Adam Rivet lead their teams in goals with Dawson scoring five and Rivet netting four.  They are the only two d-men at the top of their team’s goal scoring list and for Dawson, he is tied with Wichita’s Andrew Martens for the most goals scored by a defenseman in the CHL.
-The Arizona Sundogs return home this week after a five-game road trip that after a promising 3-2 win in the opener at Allen quickly turned sour with a 0-2-2 finish to the journey.  The Sundogs have been involved in the second most one-goal games in the league (6) and had three of them on the trip going 1-0-2 in the close ones.
-Fort Wayne has just one game in Evansville remaining on their four-game road trip and thus far have impressive 8-2 and 7-2 wins at Dayton and Rapid City, respectively.  The Komets are 2-1-0 on their journey and are all alone in fourth place in the Turner Conference.  
-The Wichita Thunder (8-2-0) have outshot their opponents in seven of their 10 games thus far winning six of those games.  Wichita leads the league allowing just 25 shots on goal per game and their GAA is sixth in the league at 2.80.
-Tulsa goaltender Ian Keserich has been in net for his team for 640 of the possible 660 minutes this season leading the league in minutes played by more than three games worth.  Keserich also leads the league with 316 saves and is currently sitting with a 6-3-1 record and a .916 save percentage.
-The Quad City Mallards are -7 in goals for/against in the second period of their games this season but are even the rest of the way scoring 21 goals and allowing 21 goals in the first, third and overtime periods.